Quarter ellipticals to replace struts?

[Neto]

Just intro-ed today - joined after 2 years lurking. This question is burning a hole in my feable mind, and I have to hear some responses, even if I just get blasted out of the water.

I've been cutting up a Chrysler T & C, and my brother & I were talking about what sort of suspension a person could substitute for the struts if you were to use the front wheel drive setup in a rat. I was wondering if quarter ellipticals would be stable enough (from side to side) to keep the camber where you want it. (There is no room for any sort of upper control arms.) (Struts are just plain ugly, and fender shape of most older vehicles wouldn't allow for access to the upper mounts anyway, even if the struts are not too high.)

 

[klink]

The short answer is yes. If you're going to re-purpose a front drive system for a rear drive application then the new springs become part of a system. The real question is will your concept of a system work. Sketch it up and post it, then you'll get lots of responses.

 

[Neto]

My own idea was to install the system in the rear, as you suggest. In that case the springs don't have to be kept up as high as in the case of a front wheel drive application (in order to allow clearance for the wheels to turn).

One thing about a rear engine application is that all of the access points (oil fill, trannie fill, oil filter) would be in the least accessible location.

re: the front wheel drive application, I first thought of doing this in a 49 Plymouth 2 door P15 parts car I have. It was my brother's idea to build a front wheel drive rat PU. This would allow you to get it pretty low, and still keep all of that open flat floor space. The quarter ellipticals, however, would need to be kept up pretty high to allow clearance for the wheels to turn.

(I can post some pictures of the stripped minivan frame, but I'm not good at drawing up the stuff that is in my head.)

 

[derbyking]

look at pics of sand cars and/or a polaris 900 rzr rear suspension.a short travel version wouldn't be to hard to do with a caravan drive train.you would have camber change through out the sweep but i don't think it'd be a issue with a short travel setup.
i would think you could modify the spindle mount to accept upper control arm and run a coil over behind the the a-arms though if there's enough room.